Actor Jussie Smollett has filed an appeal of his conviction for faking a hate crime.
The New York Post first reported Thursday that the former “Empire” actor asked the Illinois Appellate Court to order a new trial in case on the grounds of “prosecutorial misconduct” that he calls “clear and egregious.”
In the 102-page appeal filed Wednesday and obtained by The Post, Smollett’s lawyers said prosecutors had pressured a defense witness to change his statements and also said the trial judge was biased against the Black performer.
Smollett was sentenced last March to 150 days in jail in December 2021 of five counts of disorderly conduct for faking a racist, anti-gay hate crime.
He had claimed he was walking to a Subway restaurant at 2 a.m. in Chicago in January 2019 when two men approached him in the dark, yelled slurs like f——t and n——r at him, said Chicago was “MAGA Country,” poured a blanching chemical on him and put a noose around his neck.
Smollett recruited brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo to “attack” him, the two Nigerian men said.
Smollett served six days of his sentence before being released while the case is on appeal.
Wednesday’s brief, according to the Post report, made other charges about the trial, saying the judge’s “closing remarks demonstrated that Mr. Smollett’s sentencing took on a personal retributive tone.”
The actor’s lawyers also argued that his conviction violated his right against double jeopardy.
The brief said prosecutors told him they wouldn’t pursue the 16 counts of disorderly conduct, because he had performed community service and forfeited his $10,000 bail bond to the city of Chicago.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, one of the so-called “George Soros prosecutors,” was widely criticized for her handling of the case and a judge-ordered special prosecutor reviewed her decision-making and filed new charges.
“Mr. Smollett’s negotiated bail bond forfeiture and performance of community service during his first prosecution constituted punishment and thus, his second prosecution and punishment for the same offenses violated the Double Jeopardy Clause protection against multiple punishments for the same offense,” Smollett’s lawyers wrote.
